Lucy Crocker 2.0 by Caroline Preston A Novel

Caroline Preston's debut novel, "Jackie by Josie," a 1996 "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year, was published to stellar reviews. Critics and readers echoed the words of "The Cleveland Plain Dealer," which proclaimed that "Caroline Preston has written something rare: 'a woman's book' that smart women can pick up without embarrassment. "Jackie by Josie" establishes Preston as an American Joanna Trollope." The good news is that Preston's eagerly awaited second novel finds her back in top form.

Nobody -- not her kids, not her MIT math-genius husband -- could have predicted that Lucy Crocker, former children's librarian and unabashed computer ignoramus, would be the one to save the family's software company. Nevertheless, that's exactly what happens when she has an unexpected brainstorm to create a fantasy computer game called Maiden's Quest. Suddenly, Lucy, of all people, is a cyber-guru.

But now trouble is brewing in the Crocker family. First, Lucy is creatively blocked on producing the Maiden's Quest sequel in time for the crucial Christmas season. Then she discovers that her husband Ed is receiving erotic Tantric massages from their publicity director and her kids are ogling smut on the Internet. Lucy decides it's time to flee the corruption of the modern world, so she packs herself and her sons off to the north woods of Wisconsin, leaving Ed home alone to deal with the glitches at Crocker Software.

"Lucy Crocker 2.0" is the amusing story of how Lucy weans her pasty-faced boys from their computer addictions, restores order to her marriage, and comes up with a sequel to Maiden's Quest in the process. All the qualities that made "Jackie by Josie" so admired -- wit,insight, and a light touch -- are on full display in this novel about the comic and not-so-comic effects of technology on life and love at the dawn of the millennium.

Caroline Preston is married to the writer Christopher Tilghman and lives with him and their three sons in Massachusetts. A graduate of Dartmouth College, she earned her master's degree in American Civilization at Brown University. Her first novel, Jackie by Josie, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.